In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layerInternet standardprotocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.[1] POP has been developed through several versions, with version 3 (POP3) being the last standard in common use before largely being made obsolete by the more advanced IMAP. In POP3, e-mails are downloaded from the server's inbox to your computer. E-mails are available when you are not connected.

POP supports download-and-delete requirements for access to remote mailboxes (termed maildrop in the POP RFC's).[2] Although most POP clients have an option to leave mail on server after download, e-mail clients using POP generally connect, retrieve all messages, store them on the user's PC as new messages, delete them from the server, and then disconnect. Other protocols, notably IMAP, (Internet Message Access Protocol) provide more complete and complex remote access to typical mailbox operations. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, fewer Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supported IMAP due to the storage space that was required on the ISP's hardware. Contemporary e-mail clients supported POP, then over time popular mail client software added IMAP support.

Available messages to the client are fixed when a POP session opens the maildrop, and are identified by message-number local to that session or, optionally, by a unique identifier assigned to the message by the POP server. This unique identifier is permanent and unique to the maildrop and allows a client to access the same message in different POP sessions. Mail is retrieved and marked for deletion by message-number. When the client exits the session, the mail marked for deletion is removed from the maildrop.

An extension mechanism was proposed in RFC 2449 to accommodate general extensions as well as announce in an organized manner support for optional commands, such as TOP and UIDL. The RFC did not intend to encourage extensions, and reaffirmed that the role of POP3 is to provide simple support for mainly download-and-delete requirements of mailbox handling.

The extensions are termed capabilities and are listed by the CAPA command. Except for APOP, the optional commands were included in the initial set of capabilities. Following the lead of ESMTP (RFC 5321), capabilities beginning with an X signify local capabilities.

The STARTTLS extension allows the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to be negotiated using the STLS command, on the standard POP3 port, rather than an alternate. Some clients and servers instead use the alternate-port method, which uses TCP port 995 (POP3S).

Demon Internet introduced extensions to POP3 that allow multiple accounts per domain, and has become known as Standard Dial-up POP3 Service (SDPS).[5] To access each account, the username includes the hostname, as john@hostname or john+hostname.

POP mail moves the message from the email server onto your local computer, although there is usually an option to leave the messages on the email server as well.

IMAP defaults to leaving the message on the email server, simply downloading a local copy.

POP treats the mailbox as one store, and has no concept of folders

An IMAP client performs complex queries, asking the server for headers, or the bodies of specified messages, or to search for messages meeting certain criteria. Messages in the mail repository can be marked with various status flags (e.g. "deleted" or "answered") and they stay in the repository until explicitly removed by the user—which may not be until a later session. In short: IMAP is designed to permit manipulation of remote mailboxes as if they were local. Depending on the IMAP client implementation and the mail architecture desired by the system manager, the user may save messages directly on the client machine, or save them on the server, or be given the choice of doing either.

The POP protocol requires the currently connected client to be the only client connected to the mailbox. In contrast, the IMAP protocol specifically allows simultaneous access by multiple clients and provides mechanisms for clients to detect changes made to the mailbox by other, concurrently connected, clients. See for example RFC3501 section 5.2 which specifically cites "simultaneous access to the same mailbox by multiple agents" as an example.

When POP retrieves a message, it receives all parts of it, whereas the IMAP4 protocol allows clients to retrieve any of the individual MIME parts separately - for example retrieving the plain text without retrieving attached files.

IMAP supports flags on the server to keep track of message state: for example, whether or not the message has been read, replied to, or deleted.